


Finding the Truth (Rewrite)

by M1dn1ght_Star



Series: Finding the Truth ⭐ [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Albus Dumbledore Bashing, Bad Voldemort too, Beauxbatons, Cedric Diggory Lives, Creature Fic, Creature Harry Potter, Creature Inheritance, Dragons and mermaids oh no, Drakon Mathias (OC), Drakons, Durmstrang, Elf Tristan (OC), Elves, Evil Albus Dumbledore, Goblins, Gringotts Wizarding Bank, Harry is the Hogwarts heir, Hermione Granger Bashing, Hogwarts, Hogwarts Fourth Year, Kitsune Harry Potter, Kitsunes, Lady Magic loves Harry, M/M, Manipulative Albus Dumbledore, Molly Weasley Bashing, Multi, Parseltongue, Phoenix Lucien (OC), Phoenixes, Powerful Harry Potter, Ravenclaw Harry Potter, Ron Weasley Bashing, Triwizard Tournament, Veela, Veela Kaden (OC), You either get the reference or you are uncultured and have missed out on so much in life lol, do not copy to another site
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:01:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 19,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26732533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/M1dn1ght_Star/pseuds/M1dn1ght_Star
Summary: After third year, Harry sneaks to Gringotts in the summer after he receives a letter from the goblins telling him not to tell Dumbledore and to come as soon as possible.
Relationships: Harry Potter/ Original Characters
Series: Finding the Truth ⭐ [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1945534
Comments: 59
Kudos: 524





	1. A Surprising Letter

**Author's Note:**

> I'm starting (yet another) writing project. Now we have Recollections of Change, the winner of the reader competition one, and this one :D
> 
> Hopefully, I can juggle all of these at the same time. Please know, this story doesn't have a set deadline for rewriting and only the first chapter will be up until the entire thing is complete.
> 
> (fake news, its actually gonna be published as I finish and then I'll go back and edit later apparently lol)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited and republished - entire story for part 1 is now up. Subscribe to the series to be notified when I begin part 2 (year 5) and there will also be a companion fic with extra scenes.

Harry was hard at work in some old clothes of his cousin that were in a deplorable state, with stains and tears scattered plentifully across them, exposing his dirty skin from the dirt of the garden he was weeding. It was the summer before he would begin his fourth year at Hogwarts and he couldn’t wait to return to the magical castle, which felt much more like a home to him than his unwanted place at the Dursleys had ever been, despite all the danger he seemed to get mixed up in every year. He glanced up as a shadow flew over his head and spotted a dignified looking owl glide to land in the nearby tree. It was clutching an official looking letter in its talons, which must have been charmed to not sustain damage from the sharp nails as the parchment was smooth and unmarked.

Surprised that someone would be sending him an owl during the summer, as he usually spent the months in isolation from the wizarding world with no idea what was going on, as had been demonstrated only last year when there had been an Azkaban breakout, Harry glanced quickly at the house to make sure no one was watching him out the windows and got up to take the letter from the owl, apologizing quietly that he had nothing for it to eat. It gave what he interpreted as an understanding hoot and flew away. He tucked the letter into his pocket for later when he could open it safely without fear of his relatives doing something and continued to deadhead the roses.

Later, after he’d finished making, but not eating, the day’s dinner, Harry went up to ‘his’ room which still contained all of his cousin’s many broken and abandoned items, and pulled a bag out from a loose floorboard under the bed as quietly as possible. He’d taken to stashing easily preservable food in there so he wouldn’t go hungry all summer. This time, he took out a sandwich Mrs. Weasley had given him for the train ride home which was under charms to keep it a nice temperature and condition. Eating it quickly before wiping his hands on his pants as he was unable to wash his hands right now, Harry finally pulled the envelope out of his pocket, thankful to see it hadn’t gotten any dirt on it, and opened the letter.

_ Mr Potter _ , it read.  _ It has come to our attention that you were never given the inheritance test. Please come to Gringotts as soon as possible. Do not tell Dumbledore. We have reason to believe he has committed crimes against you as your magical guardian. _

_ Lord Ragnok, Head Manager of Gringotts _

Harry almost dropped the letter on the filthy floor in shock. Magical guardian? He didn’t even know he had one let alone that it was Dumbledore. That was definitely something he was going to have to inquire about when he managed to get to Gringotts. He penned a quick reply and sent it off with Hedwig, who was perched outside his window, by carefully slipping it through the bars that were still on his window from the summer of second year.

***

The next day, the Dursleys left on a trip to the seaside unexpectedly, giving Harry a prime opportunity to attempt to go to Diagon Alley. He slipped out the front door wearing a hidden cloak, layered under his invisibility cloak which was taken off and stashed in a pocket after he was out of sight of the neighbors. He hailed the knight bus using a special token Ragnok had sent back with Hedwig as he didn’t have any wizarding money at the moment.

His ride was not smooth in the driving sense but he made it to Diagon without problem, other than his vague nausea as he stumbled down the steps and tugged his hood up even further, casting his face entirely into shadow. He almost certainly looked suspicious and got some more negative attention from passerby but ultimately his identity wasn’t revealed and that was the important part.

Walking up the steps and into the huge lobby of the wizarding bank, Harry waited politely until a teller was free and stepped closer.

“Sir, I’m here to see Lord Ragnok.” The goblin looked surprised at the respectful address, but nodded without commenting after the token was held up silently and took Harry back into the bank through a small metal door behind his desk. Several confusingly identical hallways later, he was guided to a door which was labeled neatly in the middle as Ragnok’s office in several languages.

“Hello, Mr. Potter. Good that you were able to make it here so promptly. I hope you aren’t too confused as to why you are here.” Ragnok said, dismissing the teller back to his station.

Harry frowned and glanced at his worn shoes. “Well, actually… no one ever told me how the magical world works. I don’t understand, how is Dumbledore my magical guardian? I’d never seen him or even heard of him before Hagrid came to give me my letter.”

Ragnok’s wrinkled face took on a quickly paling shade. “You mean to say you never knew the magical world existed before you got your Hogwarts letter? Dumbledore told us he saw you every year on your birthday and that you were happy and had lots of friends. He also insisted that he was taking care of your education as an heir to the Potter lordship.”

“More like lonely, shoved in a cupboard under the stairs, and made to live like a house-elf. And I have no idea what you mean by heir.” Harry laughed bitterly. Dumbledore had ruined his life from what he could tell. The least he could do was repay the favor.

“We can deal with Dumbledore and any training you will need for your titles and positions after the inheritance test. It will tell us exactly what he has done to you, indirectly or directly, and we can use it in court if needed.” Ragnok pushed a piece of blank parchment in front of Harry and handed him a silver dagger. “Cut your palm and drip 5 drops of blood onto the paper. It will heal itself afterwards.”

Harry took the dagger and carefully sliced his palm, not even bothered by the slight sting, thanks to the lovely Dursleys. Their ever-expanding chore list for him didn’t often contain the safest tasks for a child. Squeezing his hand over the paper, he counted the drops of blood until five had fallen and then leaned back again, watching in slight fascination as his flesh knit itself back together through some magic that must have been on the blade.

The parchment now had words forming themselves on it, in a looping blood red ink. Blood, his blood, Harry realized. That was a bit creepy to be honest, but he wasn’t surprised by blood having magical uses and power after all the rants various sources had gone on about it. Some not so positive about different blood statuses (cough, cough, Malfoy), others highly critical (ahem, Hermione, ahem) and, now he realized, also highly uninformed in the latter’s case. 

Ragnok waited until the elegant script was done writing itself out before passing the long paper over to Harry. It was lengthy, very much so compared to usual tests, if Ragnok’s slight look of surprise was anything to go off of.

Harry’s eyes fastened on the top, where a somewhat unexpected beginning to the words lay. Hadrian, his name was Hadrian. No one had ever told him that, so he’d assumed he was legally Harry. And it didn’t get any less shocking from there. In its entirety, the test was several feet long and read:

Name: Hadrian James Potter-Black

Age: 13

Parents:

Mother - Lily Potter (nee Evans)

Father - James Potter 

Blood Adopted - Sirius Black

Claimable titles:

Gryffindor (Lord) *gifted by Lady Magic and confirmed by Hogwarts Castle magic*

Ravenclaw (Lord) *gifted by Lady Magic and confirmed by Hogwarts Castle magic*

Slytherin (Lord by right of conquest, previously heir) *gifted by Lady Magic and confirmed by Hogwarts Castle magic*

Hufflepuff (Lord) *gifted by Lady Magic and confirmed by Hogwarts Castle magic*

Gaunt (Lord by right of conquest, met age requirement of 11 and student at magical school to claim) 

Potter (Heir until of age and can claim Lordship, paternally inherited)

Black (Heir by blood adoption, current Lord illegally incarcerated so retains title)

Emrys (Lord) *gifted by Lady Magic*

LeFay (Lord) *gifted by Lady Magic*

Blocks, Compulsions:

Core (50% blocked by Albus Dumbledore, highly strained magic, alive because of support given by Lady Magic)

Parseltongue (100% blocked by Albus Dumbledore, 100% broken by Lady Magic)

Parselmagic (100% blocked by Albus Dumbledore, 20% broken by Lady Magic)

Kitsune Creature Inheritance (100% blocked by Albus Dumbledore, 5% broken by Lady Magic)

Mage Sight (100% blocked by Albus Dumbledore)

Natural Animagus (100% blocked by Albus Dumbledore, 1% broken)

Natural Occlumency and Legilimency (100% blocked by Albus Dumbledore)

Loyalty spell (keyed to Albus Dumbledore, Weasley family, Ginerva Weasley, Ron Weasley, Molly Weasley, Hermione Granger, Gryffindor, Light)

Hatred spell (keyed to Severus Snape, Slytherin, Dark, creatures)

Love potion (keyed to Ginerva Weasley, administered by Molly Weasley)

Horcrux (10% blocked by love wards on person, created by Tom Marvolo Riddle)

Skills, Magic: 

Core (level 162, unblocked would be level 270, average magical core is 150 without family magics)

Natural Occlumency and Legilimency

Mage Sight (gifted by Lady Magic)

Parseltongue

Parselmagic

Wandless and Silent Magic (boost given by Lady Magic)

Animagus (fox, unlocked)

Phoenix tears and basilisk venom bonded to blood (neutralized, no dangerous effects, slight magical level boost stabilized by Lady Magic)

Creature Inheritance:

Submissive Kitsune (blocked 100%)

4 Dominant Mates (Drakon, Elf, Veela, Phoenix) [identities currently unknown] *note that number of mates is linked to power level*

Other:

Prophecy (fulfilled at age 1, complete and inactive)

As soon as Harry reached the Blocks and Compulsions section, he had to forcibly repress his magic from lashing out in anger, not wanting to destroy the goblin’s office. “Can I get these removed?” He asked, pushing the lengthy paper back across the desk so the goblin could see it and pointing to the list of things that had been done to him.

Ragnok’s eyes flashed with furious anger at what Dumbledore had done. It was a miracle the teen was still alive and Lady Magic’s favor was largely responsible for his continued survival, especially as creatures depended on higher amounts of magic for day to day life than regular magicals. The Horcrux was also horrifying, but thankfully the goblins had a method of destroying them. “Of course, Mr. Potter.” He called another goblin and told them to lead Harry to the cleansing chamber. 

When they got there, Harry was asked by a goblin to disrobe except for his pants and lay on the stone altar in the middle of the circular room. He did so, shivering at the cold stone against his bare flesh. The goblins circled round him and began chanting, funneling power into breaking the chains that held Harry’s magic and skills prisoner. 

About halfway through, Harry felt a searing pain in his scar and blacked out. Some of the goblins took the removed Horcrux deep within the depths of Gringotts and destroyed it, while the rest kept chanting, grim expressions on their face. Lady Magic flowed around the room invisibly, doing what she could to assist them in helping her chosen wizard.

***

Harry had just regained consciousness when there was another pain and ears sprouted from his head and a tail from his back. He bit his lip so hard he tasted blood and shuddered at the odd sensation as he adjusted to the new features of his body. Not much longer after this, the goblins finished chanting and the goblin who had led him to the cleansing chamber took him back to Ragnok’s office after he redressed.

The Head Manager now had a pile of folders in front of him and a grim look on his face. “You might want to sit down for this, Mr. Potter. Dumbledore has been stealing from your vaults since the day of your parents death and using your key without permission. He has also given money to the Weasley family, the Dursley family, and one Hermione Granger. The total sum stolen amounts to around 5,000,000 galleons.”

“Can you get it back?” Harry asked a little shakily, shocked that he’d had that much money, let alone that it had been stolen.

“Yes, we can do a recall with interest as well as an item request. Quite a few things have gone missing from your vaults over the years. I think the more important thing right now is for you to try and claim your lordships and heirships. Take each of these rings and put them on one at a time. They will either accept or reject you.” Ragnok opened several boxes and handed Harry the rings. Harry tried the Potter heir ring first and was quickly accepted, surrounded with a brief warmth and rush of positive emotions. The other rings accepted him in quick succession. 

He thanked the goblin and got up to leave when Ragnok cleared his throat. “You may wish to pull your kitsune features back into yourself before you leave. Simply focus and visualize it happening. The magic is built in genetically ever since the increase in persecution of creature species so it should guide you to it instinctively.” The goblin said, turning back to the stack of papers on his desk.

“Oh, yes, thank you for reminding me.” Harry willed his tail and ears to vanish, blushing slightly at almost forgetting they were there. He paused again when he realized he wasn’t sure if he was going back to the Dursleys or not. Where was he going to go? He had money now, a bag that magically filled and only he could use, but he didn’t know of any places to stay other than the Leaky Cauldron, where he would be recognized, even with some aspects of his appearance slightly different now that the blocks had been lifted.

“If you want, there’s a hotel of sorts just for creatures down one of the adjoining alleys to Diagon.” Ragnok said, somehow understanding why Harry was hesitating. He passed over a piece of paper with directions, one that the bank kept a stash of for whenever inheritances without proper guidance or guardians occurred. 

“Thank you, Head Manager Ragnok. May your enemies tremble before you and your gold flow.” Harry gave the formal farewell, which was pushed into his mind by helpful family magics.

“And thank you, Lord Hogwarts-Gaunt-Emrys-LeFay and Heir Potter-Black for trusting us enough to come at our letter. May your enemies blood flow and your gold pile high.” Ragnok returned.

***

Harry found himself outside of a large, cheerful-looking building after following the goblins’ directions. There were protective wards around the building that he could sense and now see with his Mage Sight. When he stepped inside, it was loud and full of creatures playing Wizard Chess, talking, laughing, and pranking each other, with their features proudly on full or partial display. 

Seeing he was getting some apprehensive glances because he had no visible creature traits, Harry released his tail and ears again. The room visibly relaxed and he made his way to a front desk.

“I’d like to rent a room for the rest of the summer please.” He asked the woman standing there. She handed him the key after he paid, and he went upstairs to find it. 

It was simple but clean and Harry liked the soft green and brown colors already. He closed the door firmly behind him and pulled out his shrunken trunk and Hedwig’s empty owl cage. He’d never bothered to unshrink it when he got to the Dursleys at the beginning of the summer, keeping it safely close to him while Hedwig was off hunting. He was assisted in unshrinking it by the woman at the desk downstairs as wizard magic could still be detected in the area, though not creature magic. 

After she unshrunk it for him, Harry unpacked Hedwig’s food and water. A second later, Hedwig flew through the open window, knowing where he was through the strong familiar bond they shared. He looked through the rest of his trunk and realized he didn’t have any clothes other than his school robes and the oversized, disgusting stuff the Dursleys had given him. He’d have to go shopping then.

***

Arriving at Sopre’s Clothing and Accessories, a store the woman at the hotel had recommended and directed him to, Harry went through the door only to run straight into someone. They reached out and caught him quickly, and he looked up to see a tall boy with curly bronze hair in front of him.  _ Mate _ , his kitsune cried out in his head.

“I’m so sorry! I wasn’t watching where I was going.” The boy said, helping Harry up. “I’m Lucien, a phoenix.” He made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a coo and his sapphire eyes shone with tiny flames.

“I’m Harry. A kitsune.” Harry said, conveniently avoiding the fact that he was Harry Potter, though by Lucien’s little smile he thought he’d failed to hide it from him. “I was on my way to find a new wardrobe.”

“I can help you if you want.” Lucien offered, smiling at his mate. Their newly formed bond curled around them invisibly to most in soft rainbow colors.

Harry accepted, knowing he could trust his Magic-chosen mate by instinct, and Lucien helped him pick out a new wardrobe. During that time, they got to know each other and Harry learned that Lucien also stays at the hotel every summer and is a 5th year Ravenclaw at Hogwarts. He had an older sister but his parents had died in an accident many years ago. He even learned that Lucien sometimes talked with Fawkes and that the bird was forced to bond with Dumbledore.

They walked back to the hotel together with the bags of clothing, talking and laughing as they slipped back into the building, unnoticed by any who might have taken interest in Harry Potter being there.


	2. The Masks of False Friends Crack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which I'm apparently writing long chapters now... idk how that happened but enjoy it while it lasts lol

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry did I say something? Forget that, I'm apparently going to update as I write in the same manner as DoYR...
> 
> AnYwAyS
> 
> Enjoy :)

The last couple weeks of summer passed in an enjoyable fashion and Hadrian, who still chose to go by Harry, became a lot more comfortable with his kitsune self and adjusted to the new types of magic available for him. Some were automatic while others required focus or work to activate, such as the animagus and parselmagic. Lucien and other inhabitants of the hotel had been very helpful in answering Harry’s questions about creatures and directing him to reliable information about them. 

It felt all too soon when the day arrived for the students to return to Hogwarts and Harry said goodbye to the new friends he’d made over the summer. He stuck close to Lucien throughout the morning and felt too nervous to eat until his mate insisted on feeding him some fruit. He was still a bit too thin from the beginning of the summer and the Phoenix always made sure he ate proper, healthy meals every day.

They left the building with a couple of others who were going to Platform ¾ as well and flooed using the main lobby fireplace, luggage shrunk in their pockets courtesy of the owner of the hotel. It was actually the same woman who ran the front desk, an Elf named Gisele.

Glancing around at the busy platform, Harry hurried into the somewhat safer location of the train with Lucien close behind, their creature features completely tucked away and senses alert for any trouble. They didn’t spot Ron and Hermione who were standing off to one side of the floos talking in the shadow of a pillar and who made a beeline for the rest of the Weasleys after they spotted Harry getting on the train with a strange boy extremely close behind.

Thinking he’d been kidnapped, they alerted Mrs. Weasley, who insisted on telling the conductor before going to find him. Mr. Weasley nodded along, not willing to contradict his wife, even when she continued, “It could be a dangerous criminal. I wouldn’t want our walking bank and Ginny’s future husband to get hurt or any of my darling children. This way we can make sure everything goes well.” She said this with a sly smile, effectively quieting Ron’s arguments of confronting them by themselves.

***

Meanwhile, on the Hogwarts Express, Harry and Lucien had settled themselves in a compartment with two other students from the hotel. They were talking about the classes they were taking this year and making friendly jokes about each other and Dumbledore when the compartment door slammed open. Harry looked up, startled at the abrupt noise, and flinched back into the safety of his mate’s arm. Lucien had swiftly turned and was staring with a deadly focus at the group of intruders.

“Sir, I don’t know who you are, but you have no right to force Harry Potter to keep you company. His friends are worried about him and if you can just let him leave then we won’t have any trouble.” The conductor said, trying to take the diplomatic approach. He seemed to be a bit sceptical about the whole situation after seeing Harry wasn’t in any apparent distress.

“Yeah, you filthy Death Eaters, leave Harry alone.” Ron yelled, completely ruining any chance they had of reaching a peaceful solution. Even Mrs. Weasley was not pleased with his outburst, going by the thinning of her mouth and sudden fists clenching at her sides. Hermione grabbed his arm to prevent him from moving farther into the compartment.

Harry laughed disbelievingly. Ron was even stupider than he’d thought. “I’d rather stay with my friends than go with you thieves. Leave and get out of my sight before I make you pay even more interest.”

Hermione dragged a sputtering Ron out of the compartment, with a fuming Mrs. Weasley close behind, after she hissed at Harry, “How dare you call my precious Ronniekins a thief.” The conductor apologized and left, closing the door behind him. His mustache was quivering a bit. As he left, Harry spotted several students watching from farther down the corridor and sighed, lovely, now the entire school would hear about what had happened by the feast.

“Well, that was interesting.” Lucien commented idly, locking the door and warding it lethally tight against anyone who might want to hurt his mate. No one else would be interrupting them during the train ride unless they were wanted there. One of the other creatures in the compartment snorted and said, “When is his life not interesting? I heard the Potter family had some curse on them, like May You Live A Chaotic Life or something.” 

Harry was intrigued, he hadn’t heard of such a thing before but that might account for some of the ridiculous luck he seemed to have. That would be something to look into when he had time. What with being on the lookout for his other mates and dealing with Dumbledore and his minions, it was going to be a busy year.

***

After departing from the train after it stopped, the same group from the hotel found a carriage together near the end of the line. Lucian helped Harry into the carriage and everyone sat together quietly, enjoying the last peace they would probably get all year if going off the past few school terms. Harry intertwined his fingers with Lucien’s and leaned his head on the phoenix’s shoulder.

In the Great Hall, Harry was forced to release his mate’s hand, which he had been clinging onto since Lucien helped him up to his seat in the carriage. Lucien was in Ravenclaw and so as the Houses were required to sit at separate tables for the Feast and Sorting, Harry was left at the mercy of his ‘friends’ in Gryffindor. No one really caught his attention during the sorting of the first years, though he did notice just how few students went to Slytherin. The fewer numbers in that house just showed how hard they worked to manage winning the house cup in Harry’s first year before Dumbledore unfairly gave points to Gryffindor and made the lions win instead. He definitely had his work cut out for him as Hogwarts heir.

Harry tuned out most of the rambling speech Dumbledore gave, but paid full attention when the man mentioned a TriWizard Tournament. And to think, he’d been hoping for a boring year. He should’ve been hoping he’d survive the year.

All this time while he’d been sitting at the table, Ron and Hermione kept asking him very invasive questions from either side of him where they’d sat down, trapping him between them. It made him anxious and he kept attempting to dismiss them all as best as he could, trying to distract them and avoid answering any of the questions about the train. Both of them seemed to be trying to act like they were still friends as if nothing had happened, but in truth only Hermione was even halfway decent at pulling it off.

Harry kept brushing them off, confused as to why they were acting like this, until he caught Hermione constantly looking at his pumpkin juice and frowning. It must have a loyalty or compulsion potion in it, Harry realized, and his Lordship rings protected him from it. He took another large sip just to annoy them and hid a grin at Hermione’s frustrated face.

The Weasley twins had noticed what the two were doing and watched with frowns for a moment before interjecting and trying to distract them so Harry could eat in peace. It worked somewhat and Harry shot them both a grateful smile before starting up a conversation with Neville across the table from him.

After dinner, he was herded back to the Gryffindor common room, where Ron cornered him as he was about to go up the dorm room. Harry forced himself to stop backing away and gazed at Ron as he stepped closer with an angry look on his face.

“You need to apologize to me and Hermione. You’re supposed to be the Boy Who Lived, so you better act like it and be a good friend! You’re turning into a Death Eater, your parents would be ashamed of you!” The redhead yelled, sneering at him and reaching out as if to hit him, uncaring of the staring audience behind him, absolutely none of whom seemed to be on Weasley’s side if the glares they were shooting the redhead were anything to go by.

Harry, forcefully repressing his kitsune which wanted to either curl up into a ball or manifest creature attributes to protect himself, shoved Ron away from him and ran from the common room, ignoring the shocked reactions of the other students. Thankfully, he still had his trunk and all his belongings including his wand and broom shrunk in one of the pockets of his school robe. He followed an invisible thread tugging him through the castle, and ended up outside of Ravenclaw, touching his Lordship ring to the door by pure instinct. To his surprise, the door opened, acknowledging him as Lord Ravenclaw by changing his robes to those of Ravenclaw with blue and bronze patterns of ravens specially decorating his clothes.

He found Lucien sitting in the common room reading and Harry flung himself at his mate, letting out a distressed yip-like sound. Lucien jumped up at the sight of the kitsune and tumbled back down into his chair as he suddenly found his arms full of his distressed mate, whose creature side was moments from exploding free and completely exposing him. Barely audibly, he trilled in a comforting manner and stroked Harry’s ruffled hair, managing to calm his mate down enough that he relaxed and his magic also relaxed back over his ears and tail, protecting them from being seen.

Once Harry seemed to have settled down enough, Lucien asked, “Are you okay, Harry? What happened?”

Harry told him about what Ron and Hermione had done and asked uncertainly, ear flopping over adorably in a way that Lucien had the privilege of being the only one to see, “Can I stay in Ravenclaw with you, Lucien? I don’t wanna go back there.” He shivered, mind flashing to what he thought would happen if he returned to Gryffindor tower.

Lucien wanted to say yes so badly, but he knew that it wouldn’t easily be possible and wasn’t really sure how to respond. He didn’t have to make a choice in the end as the tower itself answered Harry. It glowed with a bronze light briefly and a door appeared in a blank section of the wall, unlocking Rowena’s apartments, which had been closed since the last Lady Ravenclaw 500 years ago. Many of the other Ravenclaws in the common room bowed after getting over their initial shock, recognising the crest that appeared glowing on Harry’s robe, where his Gryffindor patch had been before, the personal one of Rowena herself.

Harry walked into the apartments after reassurance from Lucien, looking around at the intricate decorations and elegant decorations with awe. He found the bedroom in the back of the layout of rooms, lying down on the soft sheets of the bed, exhausted by the day’s events. He was lulled to sleep by the comforting presence of his mate reassuring him magically nearby and a quiet song the tower sang to him, happy at the return of a Ravenclaw heir and one of all of the founders and blessed by Lady Magic at that.

Outside in the common room, there was brief chaos as everyone tried to process what had just happened and several Ravenclaws were frantically searching the plentiful bookcases for any volumes related to Rowena’s private quarters. Many more had approached Lucien to ask him about Harry and the phoenix answered the innocent enough questions politely before escaping to his own dorm room for some peace and quiet.


	3. A Very Brief Break

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone in the original requested more detail of Rowena's rooms and here you go :D

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't seem to stop writing this now that I've started, send help I have an exam tomorrow

More relaxed than he’d been in a while, Harry blinked his eyes and yawned as he slowly woke up. It was the first day back at the castle and a Saturday so he didn’t have any classes today. Looking around the bedroom properly for the first time now that he wasn’t so tired and upset, Harry was awed by the quality of the decorations. Everywhere he looked, there was fine embroidery hung on the wall and sleek, well-preserved wooden dressers and chairs.

Getting up and realizing he was still in his robes from yesterday, Harry wrinkled his nose and resolved to take a bath after he finished exploring. A quick wander round the other rooms revealed a nice oddly modern-looking bathroom and an enormous amount of bookshelves and books scattered everywhere. There was a desk and some fluffy blankets draped over a chair in the room next to the bedroom and also a small eating or kitchen area plus several more guest rooms.

Politely requesting things to use for a bath, Harry thanked the magic of the castle as it made towels and fresh clothes appear with a pop, followed by some basic toiletries from his trunk, which was still in his pocket, but well he wasn’t going to question magic. He made sure to pull out the trunk first and store it in the bedroom before taking off the wrinkled clothes from yesterday and relaxing into the pleasantly warm water of the bath he’d run. There were some bubbles floating around and they were in various fascinating shades of colors that he was quite interested in staring at.

Knowing he couldn’t spend all day in the bath, Harry got to actually washing himself and his ear twitched a couple of times as he carefully rinsed it, still not quite proficient at taking care of his fox ears and tail. Thankfully his soap and shampoo were okay to use on his soft black fur.

Reluctantly stepping out of the bath, Harry got dressed in the new clothes and shook out his damp hair before drying it carefully using a spell one of the other kitsune’s at the hotel had taught him. Tucking his wand into somewhere he could easily reach it if needed, Harry ventured out from the rooms he had practically hidden in and looked around anxiously for Lucien. He didn’t see his mate anywhere but thankfully spotted Luna, who he had met in the halls before. She smiled and greeted him when he hurried over, telling him kindly, “Your mate is going to be down soon. I think you can ask Ravenclaw to bring you food if you don’t want to leave yet.” Luna sat down on a free chair and began reading a book on luminescent fungi.

Harry had quickly realized that the girl was blessed by Lady Magic as a seer, however she was descended from a family line that had been cursed to have no one listen, so most people dismissed her as crazy instead of bothering to get to know her or listen to her unconventional wisdom. He was always happy to listen to her and discuss some of the interesting magical creatures she and her father hoped to find.

Just as Luna said, it wasn’t much longer before a sleepy looking Lucien appeared down the stairs from his dorm room to wrap his arms around Harry. “Good morning, Harry.” He said quietly, releasing him after a moment. “Are you feeling like going to the Great Hall for breakfast?”

“I’d rather eat here if that’s okay.” Harry mumbled, glancing at the floor shyly. “Would you like to have breakfast with me?”

“Of course!” Lucien grinned, taking Harry’s hand happily. “Lead the way.”

The two went to the door of Harry’s new rooms and were happy to find that Lucien was able to enter with Harry, as they had been unsure if it was allowed. A cheerful house elf asked them what they would like for breakfast and brought them food from the kitchen’s selection for everyone else’s morning meal.

Harry and Lucien played a competitive game of scrabble after finishing their food and enjoyed the rest of the weekend mostly by themselves in Rowena’s apartments. Luna also joined them occasionally and had fun browsing through all of the books. They had a little challenge at one point to see who could find the strangest book title and Lucien won with Pole Dancing and Charming Mice. Huh, Harry thought pole dancing was a muggle thing only. He knew about it from one of the shows Dudley liked to watch when his parents weren’t home.

***

Sadly, the weekend had to come to an end with the beginning of classes and so Harry was required to venture out of his hideout on Monday morning to breakfast in the Great Hall. In his absence, rumors had of course been spreading like wildfire throughout the school, and he heard several different versions of how he’d broken both legs on Friday night before even reaching the Ravenclaw table where he had decided to sit, seeing as his robes were Ravenclaw now. The other Ravenclaws had definitely shared his presence in their common room from what he could hear, but they hadn’t said anything exaggerated or malicious like Ron and a couple of other Gryffindors had been spreading.

At least two thirds of the student population were staring at him while he tried to eat a slice of toast under the watchful eye of Lucien’s mother henning. That wasn’t really helping his non-existent appetite, but he needed the energy if he was going to survive the day, so Harry managed to choke it down and then sipped occasionally at some water his mate handed him.

Dumbledore seemed to have been looking for him, because as soon as he spotted Harry among the sea of blue and black, he materialized in front of him, just a bit too close for comfort, and said, “Harry, my boy, I know you had a fight with your friends, but you should apologize. We all make mistakes sometimes. You need to go back to your house table as well.” He shot some kind of spell non-verbally at Harry, changing his robes back to Gryffindor colors. Students around Harry were objecting and several of the staff were looking at the commotion with concern, with Flitwick watching Harry’s reaction to the Headmaster with narrowed eyes and a skeptical gaze.

Harry instinctively pressed back against Lucien’s shoulder at the wand being pointed at him and opened his mouth to protest when his robes, which had morphed into Gryffindor ones, reverted back to Ravenclaw, and the glowing crests of all four founders appeared above his head, approving the formal House change. Dumbledore looked murderous, but had to go to the staff table to say some first day of school speech, leaving Harry surrounded by protective Ravenclaws in a whispering Great Hall. 

Across the table from him, Luna gave Harry a thumbs up and smiled, while the Ravenclaw students burst into applause and cheers, thrilled to have him in their house. Gryffindor seemed upset at losing Harry but many of them still politely clapped for him. None of them blamed him for wanting to get away from Ron, the rude attitude and disgusting slobbish behavior were enough to repel anyone. A few of them actually seemed to be looking longingly at other house tables, as if they could move themselves there by pure will. Hufflepuff clapped politely along with the other houses and some of Slytherin joined as well. Draco’s expression from his seat at one end of the snakes’ table was absolutely priceless.

Lucien snorted, “Did you see Dumbledore’s face? I wish I’d got a picture, it was so great.”

Harry had to laugh at that. “Lucien, just wait until he finds out I’ve realized he’s stealing from my vaults! That will be priceless! Absolutely priceless!” He had told his Phoenix mate who he was after a few weeks, knowing Lucien had figured it out anyways and that he could trust him. He’d also told him about everything Dumbledore had been doing to him.


	4. Arrival of the Schools

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a potato flew around my room  
> idk why I wrote that but I can't bring myself to delete it so... -crickets chirping-  
> -clears throat loudly-
> 
> iN wHiCh Harry finds a couple more of his mates bc I am too lazy to write out some whole new drawn out complicated mess over how he meets them

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -shocked- wow I've somehow managed to do it again lol
> 
> enjoy this chapter and be warned that a flood of updates is likely coming this weekend (for various stories, not just this one)
> 
> 10/16 Edit note: This is EVEN longer now lol

Harry was uneasy. He’d felt on edge all day and his heightened instincts sensed a potential threat or danger nearby. Harry’s inner fox was screaming at him that something was going to happen, most likely involving the TriWizard Tournament. Being aware of it was good and all but he couldn’t do anything about it so that wasn’t much of a comfort to his swiftly fraying nerves. 

The other two schools had arrived a week ago, Beauxbatons from the sky in an elegant carriage and Durmstrang rising from the lake on their very own pirate ship. Harry was a tiny bit jealous. He had stood next to Lucien in a corner of the courtyard, watching the foreign students disembark and file into the school. The French students were wearing thin clothes and many were obviously cold despite the warming charms he heard them generously casting.

All of the Hogwarts students followed the end of the Durmstrang contingent back into the castle and everyone gathered in the Great Hall. The visiting schools both put on a quick performance of sorts and Harry felt a bit embarrassed on behalf of Hogwarts. They looked pathetic compared to the other two so far. He was sure it had been Dumbledore’s idea to force them to sing the school song for this welcoming ceremony thing. To be fair, many of the students hadn’t sung at all and only most of Gryffindor and a few Hufflepuffs actually participated.

Dumbledore tried to direct Durmstrang to sit at the Slytherin table and Beauxbatons at Hufflepuff’s table but the other heads of the schools dismissed his words and told their students to spread out among the tables. Gryffindor had a glaring lack of foreign students after everyone had settled. A blonde Beauxbatons boy sat down next to Harry at the Ravenclaw table, introducing himself politely as Kaden. He had ice-blue eyes and honestly looked a little like a Malfoy. Which made sense because Malfoy was a French family name in origin.

_ Mate _ , the voice whispered again in his head. Harry sighed inwardly. Of course his luck was like this. Two down, two to go, he though wryly, remembering his inheritance test. The same magic glowed between the three creatures as had happened when he met Lucien for the first time and Harry smiled happily at the warmth filling his magic.

The three got to know each other during dinner and Harry learned that Kaden was 14, the same age as him, and a Veela. He already knew Lucien was a 16 year old Phoenix, but he got to hear some funny stories about Lucien accidentally trapping himself in bird form for a week. Kaden told them all about his younger brother and his twin sister who were back at Beauxbatons as they were a first year and had a project they couldn’t leave respectively.

Back in Ravenclaw tower, Harry hesitated before suggesting Kaden and Lucien move into his apartment. “It has five bedrooms, and then we could let other Beauxbaton students use Lucien’s old room.” He said, looking uncertainly at his mates. The students from the schools had been given the option to stay in the castle or in their carriage/ship.

“I’d love to! I’ve been curious for a look inside Rowena’s room anyways.” Lucien said, laughing at Harry’s face. “Don’t worry, I’m more interested in you any day.” He added, smirking when Harry blushed.

“Sure, that’s fine with me.” Kaden agreed, taking one of the other’s hands each and grinning playfully.

Harry was just leading them over to the entrance to Rowena’s rooms when they were interrupted by an apologetic second year Ravenclaw who had a note to give Harry from Dumbledore, summoning him to the Headmaster’s office.

“So much for a peaceful evening.” Harry said in a tired manner, making sure to thank the young Ravenclaw before they darted off to find their friends. Kaden seemed mostly confused as he wasn’t aware of what had been going on and Harry made a mental note to rectify that later.

“Take Flitwick with you.” Lucien suggested. “He’s not supposed to meet with students alone anyways, let alone you.”

“Alright, I’ll ask him then.” Harry waved to his mates and left them after letting them into Rowena’s rooms. Currently, he was the only one to be able to open them and he really needed to see if he could change that as it would be inconvenient.

He searched out Flitwick who was currently greeting the last few students from Durmstrang who had chosen to visit the common room. So much for security at the entrances, at least Ravenclaw had more than a simple password so they weren’t any more vulnerable than usual, unlike the other three houses. 

Harry’s new Head of House agreed at once after being asked if he’d be willing to accompany him to the Headmaster's office. He seemed troubled at why Harry would be summoned like this so early in the year, but Harry had no more answers than Flitwick.

They walked through the school together, talking quietly about a book Harry had been reading over the summer. When they reached the gargoyle statue, Harry looked at the note and found that the password was yet again a candy. “Lemon drops.” he said.

The gargoyle moved around, opening the staircase, and they climbed up quickly. 

Harry knocked and waited until Dumbledore opened the door. The Headmaster saw Flitwick and said, “Ah, Flitwick, my boy, thank you for bringing Harry here. You can go back to Ravenclaw now. I’m sure you have lots of things to do.” His eyes twinkled.

“No, Albus, I was here at Harry’s request. Students are supposed to bring a teacher with them.” Flitwick responded, shaking his head.

“Alright, come in then.” Dumbledore had a resigned look on his face. He picked up a bowl of lemon drops. “Want one?”

Harry declined after his kitsune senses picked up a mild calming and compulsion potion on them. Flitwick did as well, but accepted a mug of tea, which thankfully didn’t seem to have anything in it.

“Now, Harry, my boy, it was very immature of you to run off last night, and even more disappointing that you abandoned your house after one minor argument with a friend. Your parents were in Gryffindor and they’d be ashamed that their son decided to dishonor their memory in such a way.” Dumbledore said, blatantly trying to manipulate Harry, who shared an incredulous look with Flitwick. Was Dumbledore really this stupid? He must be going senile.

“I rather like being in Ravenclaw, thank you. I’ve made some new friends and I think my parents would have been proud of me no matter where I was sorted.” He replied.

“You need to go back to Gryffindor, my boy. We all need you to defeat the Dark Lord, and we can’t have you being in Ravenclaw. You’ll switch back to Gryffindor, or I’ll make you. And you will apologize to your friends for calling them thieves!” Dumbledore said angrily, seemingly forgetting Flitwick was there and also giving away that the traitors had informed him of the train interaction. Absolutely great, Harry had hoped to keep the man in the dark for longer than this.

“Now see here, Albus. It's bad enough to try and strong-arm a student into something you shouldn’t have any say in, but threatening one is the last straw. You’ll regret this.” Flitwick spat, vowing to get Dumbledore fired. It probably wasn’t the wisest idea to put himself so obviously against the man so quickly, but he had never had the best control over his emotions. He led Harry back to the Ravenclaw dorms and left him with his mates. He’d heard about the new kitsune from his goblin father, Ragnok himself, and was determined to protect him.

***

Harry was cajoled into eating at least a sandwich by Lucien and Kaden, who attempted several times to calm him down and get him to have more food, but the kitsune was just too jittery and couldn’t eat much. It was the evening where the champions for each school would be drawn.

Dinner was wrapping up, and everyone was indulging in a few desserts except for Harry. Even treacle tart wasn’t enough to tempt him, which was a dire sign something was bothering him. The dishes vanished just as Lucien finished his glass of water and placed it back down on the table and Dumbledore stood up, clearing his throat. His outfit for the evening was quite subdued if one knew the man’s usual fashion atrocious style, a faded blue and white.

The Great Hall instantly went silent and everyone turned to watch in hushed anticipation as he waved his wand at the cup which had been sitting in the Hall for the past week, collecting entries. The flames roared upwards and turned a bright shade of blue before spitting out a piece of paper.

“For Durmstrang, the champion is Viktor Krum!” Dumbledore announced. A cheer went up across the tables where the other school was sitting scattered.

“For Beauxbatons… Miss Fleur Delacour!” A cheer again rose up, but with a concentration at the Ravenclaw table this time as most of the French students had preferred to stick together. Kaden cheered especially loudly. “She’s a veela, like me.” He explained quietly to Harry and Lucien. 

“And last, but not least, for Hogwarts, our champion is… Cedric Diggory!” A huge cheer went up from Hufflepuff, with the other houses of Hogwarts joining in politely.

“Now, with our champions chosen, I hope you all…” Dumbledore began, but stopped when the cup flared blue once more and spat out another piece of paper.

“Harry Potter!” Dumbledore all but screamed. His face was impassive, but if one knew him well they could possibly spot a hint of satisfaction around his visage.

At the Ravenclaw table, Harry sat frozen, panic filling him. He knew something bad was going to happen to him, things always did. He might not even survive this year, there was an age line for a reason, people died in this competition. And for what, some money? He didn’t want to participate. He’d just found his mates and life was finally looking up, but now his luck was trying to rip it all away from him again. His overloaded senses didn’t register the shouts and loud arguments filling the hall.

***

Lucien jumped up when he felt Harry going into a panic attack amid the chaos of the Great Hall, scooping his younger mate into his arms carefully and making his way towards the room where the other champions were waiting, Kaden close behind with his wand in his hand. His mate hadn’t been exaggerating at all when he said he always got involved in the worst of whatever happened each year somehow.

As he entered the small chamber the other three champions were in, all three looked up and stared at him.

“What are you doing here?” Viktor asked in English, carefully pronouncing his words. He was confused by the group’s presence. “Do they need us for something?”

“Kaden!” Fleur cried happily at almost the same time, “I heard you found a mate! Is it true?” She asked excitedly.

“Yeah, but I’ll tell you about it later. Harry’s more important at the moment.” Kaden said to his Veela friend, turning to check on his kitsune mate. Fleur’s eyes widened slightly in understanding.

“Harry! Is he okay?” Cedric said, finally recognising who Lucien was carrying. The Hufflepuff jumped up from the couch he was sitting on. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“He went into a panic attack after his name got called out of the Goblet of Fire.” Lucien explained. “The best thing is to just let us try to help him.”

“Poor boy.” Fleur said, looking at him in worry. “Do you think you can manage to calm him down?”

“Yes, but please keep the adults away until we can. We don’t want them to make it worse.” Kaden smiled at her, thankful.

Viktor nodded in understanding, turning and effectively standing guard in front of the others with Cedric while Lucien put Harry down on a couch and Kaden stroked his hair gently. Fleur offered some advice to the younger Veela on methods she knew for helping calm down their mates. Lucien gripped the back of his neck gently and Harry’s breathing slowed a little. 

Harry calmed down enough to sit up a bit from where he was leaning heavily on Kaden and placed his head against Lucien’s shoulder, with Kaden hugging him from his other side. 

“How could I get chosen if I didn't put my name in?” He asked in a small voice. The other champions exchanged a look and nodded, silently resolving to help the younger boy in any way they could. It was quite obvious the boy didn’t enter and didn’t want to participate either.

“It’s okay, we’ll help you with the tasks if we can’t get you out of this competition.” Cedric soothed from next to Viktor. Everyone shifted defensively as they heard noise from outside the room. The doors slammed open suddenly and a whole mob of teachers and judges came in, yelling and arguing with each other.

Dumbledore spotted Harry and cried, “Harry Potter, you cheated to enter the tournament! I’m sure you wanted glory and fame, but being the Boy-Who-Lived does not excuse you from having to follow the rules!”

“I didn’t enter!” Harry said, shrinking towards Lucien.

“How could you have been chosen otherwise?” Flitwick asked calmly, fingering his wand in his pocket and trying to restrain himself from tossing a couple hexes at the Headmaster.

Lucien leaned even closer and whispered in Harry’s ear, “Swear on your magic that you didn’t put your name in the goblet. They will have no choice but to believe you then.” He said softly.

Harry pulled out his wand and said, “I swear on my magic that I did not put my name in the Goblet of Fire or enter the TriWizard Tournament willingly.” He said loudly to be heard over the loud adults talking over one another. He then cast a Lumos, which shone brilliantly in the air above him.

The teachers stopped arguing, shocked, and then started asking how he could have been put in instead and by who, completely forgetting their accusations of a moment before in favor of defending the poor, innocent boy who obviously was set up.

Cedric rolled his eyes. “An enemy, obviously, one who wishes him harm. People die in this tournament, you know.” He said slowly, as if explaining this to a small child.

This prompted even more debate over who it could have been and how they would have achieved this. The piece of paper that had come out of the cup was even produced and Harry confirmed it was his handwriting but pointed out from the areas around the edge that it had been torn off one of his essays for DADA.

Dumbledore gave Harry a fakely sympathetic look and said, “My boy, the contract is magically binding. I’m afraid at this point we have no choice but for you to compete. If you don’t participate you’ll lose your magic.” Inwardly, he was plotting for how to have the confrontation play out between him and the Dark Lord, for this must be who was trying to have him compete.

The judges nodded in agreement to his statement, though Harry was happy to see none of them seemed pleased about it, at the very least. They gave him pitying looks before going over the rules for the tournament before dismissing the champions.

Lucien and Kaden walked on either side of Harry as they went back to Ravenclaw, protecting him from students, mostly Gryffindor and Slytherin, calling him Cheater Potter. The other champions were loudly proclaiming Harry’s innocence and how he’d sworn on his magic he didn’t enter, so hopefully that would help head off any hostility before it could get too far. Back in the Ravenclaw common room, Harry swore on his magic again and the students accepted him back without blinking, having never believed he’d entered himself in the first place. After having seen how he was on a daily basis, they knew how different Harry was from how he was portrayed by the media and school rumors.

For the other schools, it was common knowledge that Harry had a creature inheritance and was in the middle of finding his mates, as Britain was the only country in Europe so negative towards creatures. They were careful not to let Hogwarts students hear about it though. Durmstrang and Beauxbatons both had high percentages of creature students and Harry was congratulated many times by random foreign strangers who came up to him in the hallway. Thankfully, the Hogwarts students likely assumed he was being congratulated on being a champion instead of being a creature.

***

Harry was sitting on one of the couches in the common room the next morning, still thinking about his name coming out of the goblet and stressing about the first task, when Luna sat down next to him.

“Harry, the nargles told me that Dumbledore has been asking Ravenclaws about you. Don’t worry, they didn’t tell him anything. Now that you are free from the weasels, you will finally be able to be happy.”

“Uh, thanks Luna.” Harry replied. “Did you find the shoes you lost yet?”

“Oh, no. People always keep them. I rarely get my things back.”

“Do you want to come stay in my apartments? Then you won’t constantly have to get new stuff.” Harry offered.

“No thank you, Harry. You’ll have full apartments soon and I am not meant to interfere.” Luna said mysteriously and left, leaving him deep in thought.

Harry did some asking around and discovered that the friendly but slightly eccentric blonde had been being bullied by a few older Ravenclaws and swiftly put a stop to it. The girl was under his protection in a way as Hogwarts heir and no one was willing to go against him on the matter, so Luna soon found herself no longer losing everything she owned.

That morning at breakfast, Harry was sitting at the Ravenclaw table eating some fruit with Lucien when Kaden came into the Great Hall and sat down next to them, greeting them cheerfully before his expression turned serious.

“Harry, I found something interesting in the Forbidden Forest this morning. I caught a scent and followed it to a clearing full of dragons. I overheard one of the dragon handlers, and they’re for the first task.” Kaden told him.

“Thank you!” Harry said, forcefully ignoring the actual meaning of that information for the time being. “We need to tell the other champions! They were willing to help me and they deserve to know. Maybe we can prepare together?” Harry replied. 

He got up and went over to the Hufflepuff table, ignoring the looks and whispers. “Cedric, meet me in the library after breakfast. There’s something I need to tell you.” He said, leaning close to say this so he didn’t announce it to the whole student population.

“Okay, see you then, Harry!” Cedric waved goodbye as Harry went next to the Slytherin table to talk to Krum and then back to Ravenclaw for Fleur.

In the library, Harry waited with his two mates until all three of the other champions had arrived before informing them of what Kaden had discovered in the Forbidden Forest. He shyly offered that all four of them could prepare for the first task together and was happy when all of them agreed.

They arranged to meet up occasionally and work on research and planning together, but would still work mostly on their own to honor the meaning of the tournament. Harry they would all help as he hadn’t chosen to participate, but the rest of them knew what they were signing up for, so they were on their own.

***

One day, Harry was researching alone in the library. His mates had been playing a game of Wizards Chess when he left them in Rowena’s apartments. He was browsing the Magical Creatures sections for books on dragons, but there was only one left not checked out, and it was too high up for him to reach. He was standing on his tiptoes, trying to get a hold on the edge of the spine.

“Do you need help?” A voice came from behind him, startling him a bit.

“Yes, thanks.” Harry said gratefully, turning around to find a tall, aristocratic looking Durmstrang student with dark hair. He walked up to Harry and pulled the book off the shelf, handing it to him with a kind smile.

“Thanks agai-” Harry stopped abruptly. That voice in his head was whispering  _ mate _ again as he looked into the other boy’s warm brown eyes. He blushed a little and glanced shyly at the ground.

“I’m Mathias, a drakon. And you are?” Mathias asked.

“Harry, a kitsune. Would you mind coming back to Ravenclaw with me? I’d like to introduce you to my other mates, Lucien and Kaden. One’s a veela and the other is a phoenix.” Mathias nodded in agreement and followed Harry, back to Ravenclaw after he checked out the book and tucked it into his schoolbag.

Entering the tower, Harry spotted Kaden talking with Luna but didn’t see Lucien. He went up to the two blondes and introduced Mathias to his Veela mate. Kaden greeted him enthusiastically and Mathias seemed relieved at the warm greeting, relaxing somewhat. Luna let them know that Lucien would be back soon and they could wait for him in the apartment, having worked out how to let the others come and go as they wished. 

When the Phoenix came into the apartment, he also was happy to meet Mathias. The four spent the evening getting to know the Drakon better after offering one of the free rooms to him, which Mathias accepted.

Apparently, Mathias came from a family almost as big as the Weasleys, but not in one generation. His grandparents lived with his parents and their aunt, along with three cousins and Mathias’s two younger sisters.

***

Harry received a letter the next day, from Ragnok, who had written to inform him that the bank had recovered all money that the Dursleys had received through Dumbledore. Apparently, his oh-so-loving aunt and uncle were now being investigated for tax evasion among other things as they had been taking money from the muggle government to pay for Harry’s care and were looking at a lengthy prison sentence. Dudley had been put into foster care as Marge Dursley was determined to be unfit to care for a child after her illegal dog-breeding and hosting of dog fights came to light. The rest of the money that Dumbledore had stolen and distributed Harry had requested to be left alone for the time being until Dumbledore was taken down publicly. 

The only good thing about the tournament was that it gave Harry a secondary reason for emancipation without having to reveal his inheritances of creature or magical kind. He had almost reluctantly let his other mates know about the situation, concerned they might become overprotective or give everything away to Dumbledore accidentally because of creature instincts, but thankfully other than a slight explosion or two of various kinds that were easily fixed by magic in the privacy of his rooms, Mathias and Kaden didn’t react too publicly. They did keep a closer eye on him and make sure he was taking care of himself about learning about his less than pleasant childhood being neglected and borderline abused by his relatives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also I just noticed this story is now almost as long as the original and I'm just getting started... yikes?


	5. Chatting With Dragons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Harry has a friendly chat with Mama Dragon, obtains a shiny new egg, gets cheated out of his rightful score by Bumbledee and most of the other judges, and misses something not so good that is going to come back to bite him in the a- umm, potato just in case I have any younger readers lol

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the tiny delay after promising a chapter this weekend. I was feeling under the weather and still am a bit, I think its likely a cold but not sure. I really hope it isn't well y'know, but I haven't been out of the house in months so if I did get it must have been from another family member as they all have been out often recently. :(
> 
> Anyways, hope you enjoy
> 
> BONUS points if you figure out the not so subtle foreshadowing I included 
> 
> I really love hearing from you. Tell me what you liked, if I messed any thing up so I can fix it but Nicely TM though :)

Harry reached a bit hesitantly into the bag that was being held out for him by Mr. Bagman, which was somewhat funny if you thought about it. The morning of the first Task for the competition had arrived and the champions were all pulling miniature models of dragons out of the bag, the life-size version of whom they would be facing within the hour. As the youngest, he was last to go as they did it in order of age.

He pulled out an animated Hungarian Horntail figurine, which spat sparks at him, landing tiny pricks of pain on his hand without actually causing any damage. Fleur had received a Welsh Green, Viktor a Chinese Fireball, and Cedric a Swedish Short-Snout. The other champions gave him worried looks. They’d helped him prepare, but the Hungarian Horntail was the most dangerous out of the four dragons, and even they would have reservations about facing it, let alone someone who wasn’t even supposed to be in the tournament in the first place.

The champions also went out into the arena to face their dragons by order or age, leaving Harry to once again go last and ultimately wait by himself for his turn. While he was alone in the tent, staring at the wall, he listened to the roars and noises from outside in the arena where the champions faced their dragons. The crowd was a good indication of what was going on as well and from what he could figure, none of the others had been seriously injured, which was a relief. He startled for a moment when the side of the tent lifted up, but relaxed when he saw his mates. Lucien, Mathias, and Kaden took turns hugging him and then kissed him briefly ‘for luck’ each, leaving Harry blushing and temporarily forgetting what he was in the middle of. A small bug flew past as he released Lucien from a hug and he swatted at it irritably. 

His eyes went wide as he heard someone outside of the tent and quickly pushed his mates, telling them to leave. They ducked under the tent flap quickly, just leaving before Madam Pomfrey came bustling into the tent and told him it was his turn. He smiled at her, trying to seem like he’d simply been sitting there and wasn’t slightly out of breath from his enthusiastic boyfriends/mates. Thankfully, she seemed to buy it, which Harry was highly relieved about. That would have been an awkward conversation to try and have.

He stood up from the bench he was seated on, nodding curtly to Pomfrey as he passed her on his way out of the tent, comforting himself with the fact that he had a plan. His steps took him out through a walled tunnel of sorts and then he emerged out into the sunlight, squinting for a moment at the change of brightness while walking forwards a few more steps. The Hungarian Horntail was crouched in the middle of the arena, chained to the ground and protecting a nest of real eggs. The stupidity of the people in charge of the tournament was astounding. What if the eggs were damaged? They’d have a full out rampage by a mad mother dragon.

Harry walked forward slowly until he caught the dragon’s attention, casting a subtle Wandless ward that Kaden and Mathias had taught him so nothing could be done to try and interfere. Her head swiveled around and she breathed in sharply, preparing to shoot incinerating flames straight at his visibly unprotected form.

_ I mean you no harm, Great Mother Dragon. _ He hissed quickly, bowing his head slightly in respect. His Drakon mate had coached him on etiquette, which was very helpful in ensuring he didn’t insult her accidentally. She stopped and looked at him curiously, the dragon version of eyebrows raised in surprise.

_ A speaker. How interesting. I’ve never met one before, but I’ve heard stories. _ She replied in a sibilant tone. Good, she was close enough to a serpent he could understand her. Parseltongue with dragons could be tricky, as it was rather like having regional dialects in a way. While they might understand at least partially what you said, it could be hard to understand them in return.

_ Yes. I ask you to please look at your nest, there is an imposter within. I must retrieve this imposter.  _ Harry replied carefully, nodded in the direction of her nest but not moving any closer as she might view him to be a threat to her eggs.

She looked through the eggs carefully, rooting around with delicate touches of her claws until she came upon the golden egg in the middle and hissed with disgust.  _ Take it, I want nothing to do with it _ . She rolled the egg out of her nest to him with her snout, large golden eyes gleaming at him.

Harry bent down and picked it up. _ Thank you, Great Mother Dragon.  _ He said respectfully, bowing once more before heading to the side, canceling the ward with a thought. The judges and spectators were all watching him shocked, but he simply walked into the healing tent and sat down, noticing as he did so that he was the only one uninjured. Thankfully, none of the other champion’s injuries were more severe than a few scrapes and mild burns.

His mates were there waiting for him and gathered in a group hug, holding him tightly. Harry thought he heard a clicking noise from behind him, but when he looked, all he saw was the tent flap swaying slightly as if the breeze was moving it. His creature enhanced senses wouldn’t have picked up on anything in the crowded tent. The older champions all looked relieved to see Harry uninjured and smiled at him, greeting him warmly. The four had forged a friendship by now, uncaring of the age difference other than a slight increase in protectiveness.

“We should go out to get our scores now.” Cedric said, getting up from the bed he was sitting on after thanking Pomfrey for the cream she had placed on his cuts. Fleur helped Krum up, as his foot had been injured on some rocks, and Harry followed them back outside, reluctantly leaving his mates behind with one last look.

The other champions received good scores, averaging around a 7 each, but Harry received a 4, 7, 9, 6, 10, and a 5 from Dumbledore, Crouch, Maxine, Fudge, Bagman, and Karkaroff respectively. He wasn’t the only one giving certain judges a confused or angry look and his friends Neville and Luna in the spectator stands looked outraged on his behalf. He should be in first place with how quickly he had finished and without injury, but instead he was in last place because of Dumbledore and Karkaroff’s unfair scores. Cedric was in first, with Krum and Fleur second and third. They’d said nothing about not being allowed to use natural talents, and Fleur had certainly used her Veela powers to her advantage without lost points, so why had they given him such low scores?


	6. Some Unwanted News Articles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm done! I finished part1! So yeah I decided to do a part 2 which will be year 5 at hogwarts  
> LETS GO TIME TO POST THE ENTIRE THING IN ONE DAY 
> 
> IM HYPER ON SUGAR OK
> 
> In other news, I made a tumblr
> 
> https://m1dn1ghtstar.tumblr.com/

The next morning, Harry was enjoying a peaceful breakfast in the Great Hall with his friends and mates, happily eating some fruit as he discussed prank ideas with the Weasley twins who had dropped by the Ravenclaw table to say hello and pass along news from Gryffindor. This brief period of calm was interrupted by the arrival of the post owls, bearing the day’s newspaper. It rained paper covered in words for a minute or so and then the cloud of owls vanished back out of the room, flying along the ceiling through the entrance hall and along the tunnels set up specifically for owls through the castle and to the owlery.

For a moment, the rustling of papers and quiet chatter were the only noises to be heard before the sound level of the hall rose greatly as everyone began talking about whatever the day’s headline was. Neville had been unrolling his own paper and stopped as he saw the front page, passing it over to Harry with a worried look.

A moving picture of the youngest Hogwarts champion being embraced by his mates graced the center of the Daily Prophet cover. The few seconds repeating over and over showed the warm smiles but thankfully didn’t catch anything but the innocent hug. Unfortunately the headline didn’t reflect that sentiment.  _ Boy Who Lived to Be A Heartbreaker,  _ it screamed in large letters, going on to talk about Harry exchanging kisses with all of the boys before his task and making some disparaging comments about him being in a poly relationship. Thankfully, the wizarding world didn’t seem to be homophobic and the article didn’t mention anything about creatures, so that was something.

However, Rita Skeeter, the author of the article, had also made sure to include his speaking Parseltongue for the first task and spun it in a negative light, commenting on how both Dumbledore and the ministry seemed disappointed in him using Dark skills and gave him a low score and how the illustrious headmaster would surely guide Harry from the path he was on to evil, etc. etc.

Lovely. Now the headmaster not only knew he was in a relationship with his mates, everyone else did too. He could see the mountain of howlers already. Thankfully, the goblins had adjusted his mail ward so that the bank would receive all of his mail except for those he chose to let come to him, but he still had to deal with students in the school with him. Sensing an increasing number of stares directed his way, Harry finished his food quickly and all but dragged his friends out of the Great Hall with him. The other champions came with them, as they’d promised to meet up to work on the golden eggs they all now had, which would give them a clue for the next task. If only they could do so without gaining a splitting headache.

Harry allowed everyone into his private rooms, making it so they could access it this time but would have to be given permission to enter again after leaving. Only his mates were granted the same privileges as him. House elves had dropped the eggs off so the four golden elliptic orbs were waiting for them in the room straight inside the entrance. Everyone settled down and began trying to figure out the clue from the eggs, wincing at the intermittent screeching.

Cedric was pacing and muttering to himself about an hour or so into this endeavor when he tripped and dropped his egg into the fountain situated in the center of the chamber. It opened on impact with the bottom, but no sound could be heard, a major change from the screaming of earlier.

Everyone sat up in interest as Cedric reached in, having to stick his head underwater in order to reach the egg. He could have simply summoned it, but decided to close it first in order to spare everyone the headache-inducing screeching. His expression changed drastically, eyes wide and mouth open, as he picked it up. He pulled it out of the water after closing it and repeated the song he’d heard to the others.

Harry looked over at his mates, worried, his mind snagged on the ominous lyrics. The others were coming up with theories over where the task would take place and methods they could use, but he was unable to focus. He didn’t have anything he really cared about other than them. Would they be taken? Or would Dumbledore choose to ignore that and do something else?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Former chapter contents:
> 
> So I've been arguing with myself back and forth over this for at least a week now. I just-
> 
> Let me try and put it in simpler terms:
> 
> I be stressed about putting out bad quality chapters and also having to go back and add in edits on the ones I've published on here. I really be struggling over this and decided I would not post any more of these chapters until I finish the whole thing and edit it all and then dump it on y'all. 
> 
> I'm really sorry for anyone who was looking forward to more chapters, but hopefully I'll finish the entire thing by October 18th so it shouldn't be too long ok.
> 
> Thanks for being patient and hope you have a good day.
> 
> Also in case anyone actually reads my rambling chapter notes, my mom tested negative for covid so that's good. I'm feeling better as well (not really, I'm lying to you but I'm feeling bad for other reasons that are "normal" so...)
> 
> anyways
> 
> um yeah bye
> 
> -mic drop, lands on foot, jumps around in pain cussing out my clumsy af self-


	7. The Yule Ball

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -yeets self into a trash can-

Harry and Viktor were sitting in the library researching for the second task, which wouldn’t be until after the Yule Ball so they still had time. It was around mid-November now and the weather had gotten colder, leaving the Beauxbatons students requesting assistance and advice from the Durmstrang and Hogwarts wixen who were used to the harsher winters on how to stay warm and what to do when it snowed, as while it did get cold in France it rarely snowed.

Harry got up to go find a book that had been referenced in the text he was reading over creatures that lived in lakes and when he returned to the table, large book in hand, Viktor was sitting stiffly in his chair with a frown on his face as none other than Hermione Granger seemed to be badly flirting with him while trying to show off her ‘knowledge’ by quoting various books. Was she hoping Viktor would go to the ball with her? Because she was going to be disappointed, it was very clear that Krum didn’t want to be anywhere near her and the other students in the library could obviously see this too going by their amused expressions. 

Finally, after Granger leaned on his arm and made a rude comment about Harry, Viktor lost all patience and pushed her away from him roughly, saying loudly how he already had a date to the Yule Ball and even if he didn’t, he’d never go with her and that he’d rather attend with his hawk familiar than ever step within 5 feet of her presence again.

Hermione stormed out of the library, shoving a first year Hufflepuff into a bookshelf on her way out. A large round of applause followed her exit, along with several students going to make sure the Hufflepuff was alright.

Lucien appeared from the back corner where he’d been reading a fantasy novel he’d bought at a muggle bookstore that summer and smiled at Harry, before narrowing his eyes at a beetle that was crawling along the edge of the table. He tilted his head and pushed his senses towards the bug, before pulling a jar out of nowhere and slamming it down over the beetle.

Viktor and Harry both jumped at the noise, startled, and Madam Pince hissed at them to be quiet. Lucien apologized, saying he was trying to catch a bug before it could do any damage. Obviously, Pince thought he meant the books and her face softened, nodding at them before bustling away to lecture a second year who was folding the corners of their book pages as they worked on a Herbology assignment.

The phoenix told them quietly to follow him and they all packed up their bags, moving quickly to follow Lucien through the castle and to an abandoned classroom, where he whirled around suddenly and blocked the door both magically and physically before shooting a spell at the glass to vanish it.

“Come out, come out, little Skeeter. I’d hate for you to get squashed accidentally.” Lucien said, staring intently at the bug.

Harry’s mouth dropped open. That made so much sense. No wonder he had missed Rita Skeeter when she managed to get all the information on them for the article. Having an unregistered animagus was illegal though, and that would be quite useful.

Viktor was somewhat confused, not knowing much about what was going on, so Harry filled him in briefly and his eyes lit up in understanding.

“Ah, like this one reporter back home who sneaks into Quidditch matches. They got quite a heavy punishment for having used their unregistered mouse animagus in such a way.” He said, nodding.

Lucien had shot off some spell at Skeeter, who was stubbornly remaining as a beetle, and they soon had a disheveled reporter glaring at them, eyes darting towards the door.

“Now, how about we make a little deal, Rita.” Harry said, stepping closer in an almost predatory manner. No one messed with his family. “You will not write any more articles about me, my boyfriends, the other champions, or my friends without our explicit permission. In exchange, I will not reveal your beetle form to the DMLE and I will even throw in some nice information Dumbledore doesn’t want the public to know.” He said, smirking at the thought of getting a nice shot in at Dumbledore’s reputation.

Skeeter’s eyes widened in interest and a sly smile curled across her face. “I accept. Now, what’s that about some information on Dumbledore?”

A productive half hour later, all parties of the unexpected meeting left satisfied, along with one very happy castle who vanished the protective wards that it had put around the room to protect them from Dumbledore’s illegal monitoring of the school.

***

Harry didn’t know who to go with to the Yule Ball. He was blocked from being able to go with his mates because of his status as a champion, who were only allowed one person as their date because of how the event had been set up with a dance and champions table. He had received many other offers from students from all houses and schools and both genders, but didn’t want to go with a stranger, though many of them were actually quite nice and he’d become friends with several.

His problem was solved by the appearance of Luna one day, who sat down casually next to him in the common room and said, “Stop worrying, Harry. I’ll go with you officially, but you will still have plenty of time with your mates,” in a tone that made it clear to him she had Seen it.

“Thank you, Luna. I hope you didn’t want to go with someone else.” He replied gratefully, smiling at the girl who had become like a little sister to him. They sat talking for a while before Harry had to go work on his Charms essay and then Harry spent a happy evening curled up in a nest of blankets with his mates.

The evening of the Yule Ball, Harry paced nervously in the Ravenclaw common room, waiting for Luna to come down. After the dancing lessons Professor Flitwick had requested the students attend, he was fairly confident in his ability to complete the Champion’s Dance without tripping or standing on Luna’s toes, but he still didn’t like the idea of having everyone watching him dance. That he felt more confident facing danger than being the center of attention would probably be considered concerning to some people, but it seemed normal enough to him after all of the things Dumbledore had put him through.

He was pulled from his thoughts by the appearance of Luna at his left shoulder. She was dressed in a delicate ice blue dress that flowed elegantly to the ground with silver earrings and jewelry, a more refined and elegant look than her normal butterbeer cork necklaces and dirigible plum earrings. Her hair was loose in soft curls and tumbled down over her shoulders.

“You look lovely!” He told his friend, having gone for the simple black suit option on his school shopping list instead of more traditional wizard robes.

“You as well.” Luna replied, smiling serenely. “We have to get down to the Entrance Hall now. McGonagall is looking for us.” She took his arm and they walked down together, talking quietly and glancing occasionally around to see if Ginny, Ron, or Hermione were around.

Luna was, as always, right and McGonagall was waiting for them at the entrance to the Great Hall next to Krum, Cedric, Fleur, and their dates. Cedric had come with Neville as the two had started dating after being introduced via Harry one day and hitting it off, while Fleur was on the arm of a Beauxbatons boy who Harry was fairly sure she had mentioned as being named Antonin a few times, and Krum was smiling at a delicate looking Ravenclaw girl named Yukiko who he knew since childhood as Yukiko had moved to England a couple years into Durmstrang and transferred to Hogwarts because of her mother’s job. 

After what felt like mere seconds, they were ushered into the Great Hall for dinner before it was their turn to do the Champion’s Dance. He took Luna’s hand and twirled her at the right time, glancing discreetly around for his mates. He saw them standing in the corner at a table.The dance came to an end and Luna said goodbye before disappearing off into the crowd that was flooding the dance floor. 

Harry ducked into the crowd as well, weaving his way over to where Lucien, Mathias, and Kaden were standing, the latter twitching slightly.

“Did he eat too much sugar or something?” Harry asked, raising an eyebrow playfully.

“No, he just doesn’t like crowds.” Mathias explained, smoothing down Harry’s wild hair as he leaned on his shoulder. Harry spotted Ginny glaring at him through the throng of students and teachers and pressed backwards against Mathias.

“Why don’t we go into the gardens then?” Lucien said, picking up on the female Weasley’s unwelcome presence that was now advancing towards them wearing an unflattering pale pink dress that clashed with her hair. 

Kaden enthusiastically agreed and the four made their way outside. The other three had all chosen to wear plain black robes or a suit as well, so they had matched unintentionally. The sun had set and it was chilly out, so Harry was glad when his mates cuddled close. They found a small area surrounded by bushes and sat down. Harry glanced around for other students and staff before wandlessly warding and illusioning it to make them invisible, following his instincts as a kitsune for the tricky magic intended to protect his family.

He let out his ears and tail then, feeling like he was finally able to stretch after months of hiding his true self. While he sometimes relaxed his creature self at night, he was often too tired and forgot to do so, resulting in stiff ears and a sore tail. Lucien, Kaden, and Mathias quickly followed suit and soon they were all lying down in a pile on the soft grass, with tails, feathers, scales, and ears on full display. A couple warming and environment charms provided by Lucien, who had an affinity for fire magic because of his inheritance, later, the mates were relaxed and almost sleepy.

Harry traced his fingers curiously over the scales on Mathias’s neck. They were warm and oddly soft. Kaden was trying to play with his ears and pouted cutely until Harry let him, left ear twitching occasionally at the sensitive, ticklish feeling. Lucien laughed watching them, at least until he was playfully tackled and hugged by Harry, who started messing with the feathers in his hair.

They stayed out there for an hour or two before reluctantly getting up and going back inside, where the ball was wrapping up. Professor McGonagall side-eyed them but let them go past without comment. They made it back to their rooms and quickly fell asleep. What a wonderful evening, they had even managed to completely avoid Dumbledore, and the trouble trio (Ginny, Ron, and Hermione).


	8. An Unfair Task

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> too bad she didn't drown ;-;

The day before the second task, Harry was sitting out by the lake when he was joined by a tall blonde boy from Beauxbatons who introduced himself as Tristan. He had silvery eyes that glowed slightly and Harry was sure he’d seen pointed ears through the long hair. When they went to shake hands, however, they realized they were mates. Tristan was the last of Harry’s mates to be found and now his mateship was complete in a sense. The two spent some time in the shade of a large tree by the water getting to know one another and Harry learned that Tristan was an elf three years older than him. He was an only child and had three parents, a mum, a mother, and a papa, who were two elves and a drakon.

Harry introduced Tristan to his other three mates and their bond clicked into place, finally complete for the first time. Everyone helped him plan for the second task, both his friends and mates and the other champions. They now had quite a large group when everyone got together, as the champions invited their friends and dates from the Yule Ball along. It was Tristan who discovered the possibility of and found gillyweed somewhere, though he wouldn’t tell Harry where he got it. Harry had his suspicions that Tristan had somehow acquired some from Neville, as the two had spent a lot of time in the library together looking for herbology books.

He had become closer friends with Neville this year, someone who he was ashamed to say he had mostly overlooked and ignored until now, though they were in less close proximity this year than the past three seeing how they used to be roommates in Gryffindor. Neville was a genius when it came to Herbology and always willing to help his friends, something Harry was thankful for and would give Neville help on any DADA homework he needed assistance with in return. They’d talked quite a bit during the beginning of the Yule Ball along with Luna while waiting for the Champion’s Dance and had remained closer friends ever since.

It was the evening before the second task that Harry realized Luna’s words had come true. His apartments were now full. With Lucien, Mathias, Kaden, and Tristan, all of the rooms were occupied, though the five creatures usually preferred to curl up together on the largest bed in Harry’s room instead of sleeping apart. They hadn’t progressed much past kisses and some light touches, but instinctively Harry knew that soon his kitsune would trigger them to mark each other and fulfill the physical side of the bond that had laid dormant until all of them were together.

Rita’s article using the information Harry had given her on the Headmaster had been of moderate success. It stirred up a lot of questions and anger but too many of the wizarding population of Britain blindly followed Dumbledore to see him for what he was so quickly. An anonymous letter with a tiny beetle drawn on it found its way via post office owl to the Daily Prophet office, depositing the envelope on Skeeter’s desk to await her skilled quill.

***

The morning of the second task dawned cloudy and cold. Harry was both confused and relieved to see that none of his mates had been taken, frowning in confusion as he also could easily spot all of his friends except for Neville, who was Cedric’s hostage, in the Great Hall eating breakfast. Who or what else could it be? He could figure out who had been taken from the other three by looking at the empty place next to Viktor, Fleur, and Cedric where their boyfriend or girlfriend usually sat. He could see not using his mates because how would they choose, but why wasn’t Luna his hostage then if using that way of thinking?

It didn’t seem like an explanation would be coming any time soon as the champions were herded out to the lake, where a floating structure had been constructed off the dock. That didn’t seem like they had planned the tasks out very well, the audience for this one would just stare at the surface of the lake for an hour, but Harry couldn’t really be bothered to care. He was more concerned about the task he was being forced to compete in. It was still very cold and the Harry’s mates exchanged worried looks, as kitsunes were sensitive to temperature. 

Lucien quietly pulled Harry aside and told him to use warming spells so he wouldn’t get too cold. Harry only had time to nod before he was pulled to the edge of the dock and told it was time to start. A bell rang from somewhere near the judges and the champions dove into the water. 

Harry stuffed the gillyweed into his mouth and swallowed, wrinkling his nose at the taste. A brief burning sensation later, he was equipped with his very own temporary set of gills and fins. After pausing to cast warming spells to protect him from the chilly water, he dove down deeper, pushing aside drifting fronds of plants. 

He spotted what looked like a ruin further down and swam there, finding four captives floating there surrounded by merpeople with weapons. That had been surprisingly easy so far, so he was on high alert for anything that might go wrong.

When he scanned the people for whoever he was supposed to take, he found that the fourth people after Neville, Yukiko, and Antonin was none other than Ginny. How dare the headmaster try and force him to be with Ginny like this! He was sure the press would have a field day. At least Skeeter wouldn’t be able to write anything about him this time. 

Harry turned around in disgust and swam back to the surface, leaving Ginny there. No matter what, he was not rescuing her. On his way there, he passed by Cedric emerging from some writhing vines and nodded briefly to the other champion as he propelled himself towards the brighter water above his head. 

When he broke the surface of the water, he was asked by the judges why he returned empty handed. Most of the judges seemed confused as he wasn’t injured in any manner and had apparently returned of his own choice.

“There was nothing down there I cared about.” Harry replied venomously, glaring at Dumbledore, a look which his mates definitely noticed. He turned away and refused to talk to anyone except his friends after this, wrapping his arms around Kaden’s neck in a hug. One Molly Weasley could be heard loudly screeching the background the entire time and the other schools didn’t seem surprised that Harry had left the girl down there, having picked up on their hostile dynamic, at least on his side. Most of Hogwarts just seemed confused, either that Ginny was his hostage or that he’d left her down there.

After a few minutes, Fleur arrived back at the surface without her hostage either, having been attacked by grindylows and injured to the point of being forced to retreat or suffocate and drown. They were both given no points for the task and handed towels by Madame Pomfrey, who didn’t seem pleased with the officials for putting others than the champions in danger.

Soon after, Krum and Cedric appeared with Neville and Yukiko, surfacing almost at the same time. They got out of the water and received points from the judges, which ended up being a fair score for both for once. Cedric remained in first place, having had the lead from the first task because of/even despite the biased scoring. Ginny and Antonin were brought up from the lake magically and dried off with some quick charms. Pomfrey released them from the spell that had been keeping them unconscious and bustled them off to the medical wing.

Harry, who had been surrounded by his mates and friends at this point, had to practically glare his mates into silence all the way back to Ravenclaw, where they were safe to explode angrily, yelling about how the tasks have been rigged against Harry, dangerously so. A swift request to Ravenclaw tower had the castle’s magic protecting their creature sides from being seen as they emerged.

Professor Flitwick heard them and came over from where he’d been sorting paperwork in his office. “What do you mean, the tasks have been rigged?” He asked.

“Harry was given the most dangerous breed of dragon to exist for the first task despite the fact that for a normal tournament there would only be three dragons and the typical three breeds used for the tournament in the past were the other champion’s dragons. That means they brought in this extremely dangerous dragon with him specifically in mind. And then the person he was supposed to retrieve is someone he hates and someone who has been trying to drug him with love potions and steal his money.” Mathias explained, eyes blazing with barely hidden fire. Any other person would be scared, but Harry found himself comforted and pressed himself closer to his Drakon mate.

Flitwick’s face turned stony and his eyes cold. “I will handle this.” He disappeared into his office and floo-called Amelia Bones. It was time to start an investigation against Dumbledore, officially. Too many suspicious things had happened to put off this any longer.


	9. Interlude - Instincts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 😏😏😏  
> In which people get bitten and tossed on beds
> 
> Just kidding.  
> About the biting part.
> 
> Some not super subtle allusions to, y'know, stuff, plus some interesting background I came up with for creatures lol

Harry found himself being pushed back into his large bed, practically collapsing into the soft sheets and wealth of pillows as Kaden and Tristan sat down on the edge, watching Mathias and Lucien take control of the situation. After the disaster that had been the second task, all of his dominant mates had their instincts triggered to mark him, upset with the attempt to push Ginny at Harry. The submissive kitsune had also been distressed by the task and he could feel his magic flowing through the air around them, urging the others on. 

In creature mateships, the act of mating marks had changed over time as the number of creatures had drastically declined and many species even were in risk of going extinct, at least in Europe. It used to be different for each species, using features that only those kinds of creatures had to mark one another in ways varying from bite marks with fangs to magically attaching a feather to the back of one another’s neck, where it would sink into the skin and become part of them permanently. Magic had changed this, seeing how her creature children could no longer do this in many cases, and now mating marks were something purely magical that took a physical form.

With the arrival of Tristan into their mateship, the more somatic side of their relationship was triggered as they had found all of their mates and their instincts knew it was time to bond themselves together fully. This aspect of the bond had to wait until all mates were together or it could damage the connection between any who were marked later than the others. Such large groups were somewhat uncommon, but it was usual for mateships to have an average of 3 people. While Kaden and Tristan knew each other in passing from their time at Beauxbatons, their bond had been suppressed when Harry’s bond was tampered with as the magic made it so that what affected one side affected all of them, so the group really had just begun getting to know each more closely. His instincts had helped to settle Harry’s nervousness about being a creature and having mates, as he had been extremely overwhelmed after first discovering everything that had been hidden from them, and his family magics were also very good at reassurance and information about what was going on.

Harry let out a slightly embarrassing sound at the feeling of all four of his mates pressing a finger to the highly sensitive area by his left fox ear, just behind them where soft hair and fur met smooth skin. He could feel the magic drifting down their arms and into him, mixing together before, with a slight glow, it faded, leaving a circular mark with a swirling orb of their magics mixed together.

Their instincts pushed them to mark the submissive in the relationship first, but with this done, it was up to them what order to go in. Mathias and Lucien shared a soft kiss as they reached up at the same time to mark one another. Harry added his magic into both of their marks before giggling at Kaden’s pout, who tugged him with a strong arm into his lap and tilted his head so Harry could reach to touch his mark, which Tristan had begun.

After all of them had complete marks, the five students flopped down into the bed, yawning and tired from the long day and taxing use of their magic, along with some activity that had happened after finishing mark one another. Ravenclaw tower watched the boys sleeping fondly, before returning to the castle’s watchful state for danger to the children within, keeping a special eye on Dumbledore where he was pacing and mumbling to himself in the Headmaster’s office.


	10. The Maze and the Suspicious Portkey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The school year just yeeted right on past 
> 
> Also 
> 
> me, while editing: yeah everything seems about rig- WAIT A MINUTE tf I completely forgot Moody was supposed to be there that year, lemme just toss in a mention at the end, perfect.

Harry stood by the entrance to the tall walls of the maze that he had been assigned, shivering slightly at the cold spring air. There were four in total, one for each of the champions, that all led to an non-moving section of the maze in order to allow a ‘fair’ start for all of them, despite going in based on their number of points. He would be going in last, with Fleur right before him because of her better score in the first task. His mates and friends watched anxiously from the stands, worried for him. 

So far, the champions had been put in danger pretty consistently, so they doubted the last task would be any less dangerous. If anything, it was probably even more so. Harry was absolutely terrified, they could tell by the way he fiddled with his wand, his breathing quick and shallow. His mates felt the whirling magic of their bond and had to restrain themselves from leaping out of the spectator stands to try and protect him. When he finally entered the maze, they held their breath, hoping he would make it out safely. 

Thanks to lots of criticism from viewers of the second task, the third task had a giant spectator bubble set up floating above the maze, which allowed them to see what the champions were doing. None of them had crossed paths yet and were all engaged in either fighting a creature in one of the passages or running down a quickly shifting corridor of shrub barriers.

***

Inside the maze, Harry walked in the semi-darkness caused by the long shadows cast by the looming hedges, wand out and angled protectively in front of him. Something ominous swirled within a particularly thick patch of shadows and a dementor glided suddenly in front of him. Pushing aside the cold and fear with a little help from the warmth of Lucien’s phoenix magic, Harry cast the Patronus spell. He was surprised when instead of Prongs, a small fox bounded out of the light on the end of his wand, racing to crash into the dementor, which fled back down the corridor right before the maze shifted again, blocking that way. 

Following a new path that had opened up, Harry came across several creatures that he was sure had come from Hagrid, such as blast-ended skrewts and even a hippogriff. Thankfully, he managed to get past them with only a few minor burns and a stressful minute before the hippogriff returned his bow. He then had to answer three riddles that were given to him by a sphinx that seemed to be bored. She lounged in front of him across the path lazily, giving him the easiest riddles she had, simply because she was bored and smiled a sharp grin with teeth exposed when he got them correct before nodding and vanishing through a hole in the hedges.

Somehow, Harry managed to make it to the center where the glowing cup was waiting on a stone pedestal just as the other three champions burst through hedges on all sides. They looked at each other for a moment before Cedric said, “We should all take it together. That way we all win.” Harry didn’t really care about winning all that much, but he wasn’t opposed to sharing the victory with all of his friends. The way the scoring worked, the other task points were only to give an advantage for the last task, which whoever was the winner of became the Triwizard, or rather Quatwizard Champion in this case. Krum and Fleur agreed happily as well, but Harry was looking suspiciously at the cup. Cedric was about to grab the cup when the kitsune shouted, “Stop!”

Cedric yanked his hand away, trusting Harry’s instincts as he and the other champions had been let in on the secret after Harry had asked Magic if they were trustworthy. “What’s wrong?” The older Hogwarts student asked, frowning at the cup which shimmered tauntingly.

“The cup has harmful magic woven around it. It’s a portkey to take us away from Hogwarts and send us to evil. It has a slimy, malevolent feel to it.” Harry replied, backing away from the golden trophy, which sent out a tiny pulse of foul magic as he did so as if reaching for him.

“What do we do?” Fleur asked, gazing critically at the portkey cup, wand pointed at it.

“Leave it. We shall send up red sparks at the same time.” Surprisingly, it was the normally quiet Krum who said this. He often chose to let others make decisions rather than be in charge, disliking attention and pressure that he had forced on him by Karkaroff. Quidditch was one thing, but such an upfront danger was not something Krum had wanted to include himself in. Viktor was peaceful and a scholar at heart, a personality that fit well with Yukiko’s dominant Ravenclaw side.

Everyone agreed with Viktor’s idea and Harry raised his wand with the others, sending up red sparks at the same time as they had been instructed to do if forfeiting, waiting until the maze dissolved around them before coming back to the stands together.

Dumbledore was about to speak when there was a flash of light from the edge of the wards and a large group of Aurors appeared, trailing behind none other than Amelia Bones herself. Flitwick stood at her side, a grim look on his face. The head of Ravenclaw had been quite busy after he had begun looking into Dumbledore earlier that year. Harry had quite helpfully given him access to some files and evidence of the man’s crimes against him and it seemed Flitwick had finally brought his case to the head of the DMLE.

“What is the meaning of this!?” Dumbledore cried. “I’m sure whatever it is can be handled at a later date. It’s probably just a small misunderstanding…”

He was cut off by a group of disarming, silencing, and binding charms cast simultaneously by the Aurors, tying his hands together behind his frozen back as his wand clattered to the ground at Madame Bones’ feet. His mouth moved furiously but no sound came out.

“Albus Dumbledore, you are under arrest for illegal blocking of a child’s magic, compulsion spells, love potions, attempted line theft, monetary theft, item theft, power theft, land theft, Wizengamot seat theft, and accessory to child abuse and neglect.” Madam Bones announced under a Sonorous charm, gesturing for her Auror team to take Dumbledore. They carried him to the boundary line of the wards and then flashed away, apparating back to the Ministry.

Maxine, looking like she was seconds from going into shock, took a fortifying breath before taking over and concluding the tournament with Durmstrang and Hogwarts in a tie. As all four had officially forfeited the last task, the point totals from before it stood and so Cedric and Viktor won. Harry and Fleur congratulated Cedric and Viktor before being the two foreign champions were practically tackled by their significant others, who were relieved to see them all mostly unharmed. Cedric was being strangled with a hug by Neville nearby while Lucien, Kaden, Mathias, and Tristan clung to Harry from all sides, relieved he had made it back safely. 

The four champions hugged one another as well, exchanging information to keep in contact during the summer. Fleur, Cedric, and Krum would be heading back to their homes right after the end of the school year, while Harry would be staying at the hotel again with Lucien. His other mates had even convinced their families to let them stay at the hotel for part of the summer before they would have to return to their own countries. It would be taxing on the mate bond to be apart, but thankfully bearable and wouldn’t do any damage, once again thanks to Magic after the decline of creatures in Europe.

Harry had made sure to let Flitwick know about the cup that had been tampered with and the new Headmaster, appointed by the castle itself this time instead of the School Board so it was unchallengeable unless Flitwick chose to leave the position, took care of the issue, informing them later that the portkey had led to an abandoned graveyard where they found traces of ritual preparation but nothing more. That was a bit ominous to think about and Harry was glad the champions hadn’t been forced into whatever ritual was planned to happen that day.

Mad-Eye Moody, the Defense professor of that year, who had rather surprisingly faded into the background for the most part after his initial dramatic entrance, was nowhere to be seen on the Quidditch Pitch and it was later announced that their teacher that year had been an imposter but the real Moody had been found was recovering safely. The imposter hadn’t been caught but it was highly suspected that they had been the one to enter Harry in the tournament and were therefore working for whoever had been in the graveyard that the portkey went to.

The last evening at Hogwarts before the other schools departed, Lucien led his mates up to the Astronomy Tower. Though Tristan was the oldest by a year, Lucien had taken unofficial charge as the head Dominant in the relationship and their magic was content with the order. They looked on in awe as Lucien finally was able to free Fawkes using an invocation to Lady Magic in order to shatter the bond chaining the fire phoenix to the school, who sang gratefully and nipped playfully at Lucien’s ear before winging off into the sunset, leaving the five boys to sit together in content silence as they looked out over the peaceful grounds of the school.


	11. The Trial of Albus Dumbledore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ATTENTION PLEASE: 
> 
> Now that I have your attention, please go get a drink of water, stretch your legs, go outside and enjoy some fresh air if you can.
> 
> Thanks, good job
> 
> Okay, now - this is the end of part 1. Part 2 will be posted as a separate work in the series so I'd subscribe to that if you want to be notified when I start posting it. Also I'm planning a companion fic to part 1 of sorts, with extra scenes.

The day had come for Dumbledore’s trial and Harry was nervously fiddling with his hair. He reached up to tug on his fox ear that was hidden in the wild hair again and his hand was swatted away by Tristan. The elf gave him a stern look but his eyes were soft as they gazed at him. “Stop it, little fox. Just because you’re nervous doesn’t mean you should be harming yourself.” Tristan said, taking Harry’s hand as it twitched away and stroking gentle circles on his palm. It was a few minutes before Dumbledore’s trial would begin and Harry was extremely anxious about it.

They were sitting in a middle row of seats, surrounded by a group of Aurors in case something might go wrong, but Harry still felt like Dumbledore would somehow manage to get away with everything and come after him. The letter summoning him for the trial had come a week ago. It was closed to the public for the most part other than a couple reporters, but since Harry was involved and might be needed as a witness he and his mates were invited.

The court was called to order and the trial began. Amelia Bones was acting as Judge due to conflict of interest for Doge, who was a member of the Order. Dumbledore was brought in in chains, looking haggard and weary, but he still had the twinkle in his eye he did when he was planning something.

A slimy looking lawyer was defending Dumbledore and spouted off a load of utter trash about how Dumbledore was the protector and savior of the light and how this was a mistake and the truth would come to light. Then the prosecution, which in this case was the Wizengamot itself, brought out their trump card. 

“Bring in the Veritaserum.” Dumbledore’s eyes widened. He obviously hadn’t been expecting this. His lawyer bluffed something about how it couldn’t be used without his client’s consent, but Madam Bones overruled him on the grounds that in cases of line theft, Veritaserum was to always be used.

When it was the defense lawyer’s turn for questioning, he didn’t even call a witness, knowing that his case was done as soon as Veritaserum was used.

Madam Bones began asking her questions. “Did you block Harry Potter’s magic?”

“Yes.”

“Did you use illegal compulsion spells and love potions on Harry Potter?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because he needed to become the hero for the light and defeat Voldemort, dying and leaving his money to the Order.” The Wizengamot gaped at the man. They could now add planned premeditated murder to the list of crimes. Many had believed the man had simply lost it, but Dumbledore’s answers showed stone cold planning, despite being against a man who had supposedly died over a decade ago. That would be something to look into.

“Did you attempt to commit line theft?”

“Yes.”

This continued in single word confirmations until Madam Bones asked, “Did you knowingly place Harry Potter in an abusive home?”

“Yes. He would need to be uncertain and easily malleable in order for me to ensure he would do his duty. I arranged for the Dursleys to receive monthly sums in exchange for making sure he was beaten down by the time he turned eleven.” Someone in the Wizengamot gasped. He had arranged for a child to be abused, that was beyond what anyone had expected, even Harry.

After the questioning, Madam Bones carried out the sentencing. “All in favor of Dumbledore being guilty on all charges?” The entire Wizengamot lit up their wands.

“Sentenced guilty. What shall his punishment be?”

“Azkaban for 20 years and the Kiss after that.” Lord Selwyn said smoothly.

“All in favor?” Again, a unanimous vote. Even those who supported Dumbledore couldn’t side with him on this matter. 

“Approved. Dumbledore shall be taken to Azkaban to carry out his sentence.” Madame Bones said, nodding. Twenty aurors went to Dumbledore and took him out of the courtroom. His wand, which had been kept in DMLE custody in case it was needed for evidence, was snapped and destroyed.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief. They hadn’t needed to show any of his memories. While he would have allowed them to if it was needed to make sure Dumbledore paid for his crimes, he would have prefered not to share his traumatizing experiences with everyone.

“See? There wasn’t anything to be nervous about.” Lucien said quietly, helping Harry up from his seat and tucking him under his arm gently. “Now, who wants to get ice cream?”

***

The next day, a special edition of the Daily Prophet made its way across England to the various homes of witches and wizards. There were no photos this time as photographers weren’t allowed into the courtroom. It was quickly shared amongst neighbors and friends who didn’t receive the paper and the public was outraged at Dumbledore’s actions.

DUMBLEDORE SENTENCED TO AZKABAN!

By Rita Skeeter

Today was the trial of Albus Dumbledore, where he was accused of quite a lengthy list of charges, including the illegal blocking of a child’s magical core, the use of compulsion spells and love potions, attempted line theft and on some affairs successful line theft, and accessory to child abuse and neglect. I was expecting it to be a clean cut case where it was proved Dumbledore was innocent, as the past few times jealous politicians attempted to get him arrested in order to gain more power. Much to my surprise, however, when Dumbledore was given Veritaserum, he admitted to committing all such crimes and more, and the victim was the Boy-Who-Lived, young Harry Potter no less! I think I speak for all of us when I say our hearts go out to the young Savior and I hope he heals from his horrible experiences at the hands of this man who deceived us all.

I did some research to see if I could find anything else about Albus Dumbledore’s crimes and something I found was even more interesting. You see, dear readers, I discovered after having a chat with Bathilda Bagshot, who had known Dumbledore in his youth, that Dumbledore had been good friends with Gellert Grindelwald. And not just friends, if you get what I mean. The two had also made plans in the name of the Greater Good that Grindelwald later put into action. As Dumbledore’s defeat of the Dark Lord Grindelwald was what catapulted him to the power he later used for nefarious purposes, I am sceptical on the actual events of Grindelwald’s defeat, since the only witness to this legendary duel the two had were the men themselves. 

His father was also put in Azkaban when he was a boy after torturing three Muggle boys to death and Albus caused the death of his younger sister Ariana as well with a stray spell while having an argument with his brother Aberforth over his relationship with Grindelwald. Aberforth was in tears as he told me the tragic story of his sister’s death when I met with him to ask him about Albus Dumbledore in his youth. I hope that Aberforth can also find closure in the sentencing of the former Headmaster, whose title has been awarded to Filius Flitwick, the previous Head of Ravenclaw that the castle’s magic declared the new Head of the school. The new Ravenclaw head of house was chosen to be Aurora Sinistra, the Astronomy teacher.

This reporter is on the trail of more information about the crimes Dumbledore has committed and other information on the criminal mastermind that has been buried before now and will be publishing a book on the matter soon.


End file.
